Fw: the masks we wear... [Fw: Autonomia and the Origin of the Black Bloc] (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 18:06:20 -0400
From: Any Mouse
Subject: Fw: the masks we wear... [Fw: Autonomia and the Origin of the Black Bloc]

More info on Black Bloc and some personal musings from sometime ago...

----- Original Message -----
From: Any Mouse
Subject: the masks we wear... [Fw: Autonomia and the Origin of the Black Bloc]

> Interesting read below.  The problem w/ Black Bloc for those that don't
advocate
> violence or destruction (like myself) is that the larger the Black Bloc the
more
> likely you'll have rogue elements wanting to "fuck shit up".  The mask is a
> powerfull tool for solidarity and self defense- as can be seen in the Chiapas
> example....
>
> And more generally on masks...
>
> Milan Kundera wrote in _Immortality_ of a plane of existence after death where
> the sentient forms had no faces.  They visited the protagonist in life and
> explained to her that faces are a primitive creation of man that are mearly
> superficial and cosmetic in design and serve simply communicate via a visual
> broadcast emotions in a raw and misinterpretable way to the eyes of others-
> something the transient forms had outgrown after time and after having gained
> the ability to share emotions through other, less mistakeable means.
>
> All absurd.
>
> There was another text who's author I can't remember who wrote of a species
that
> wore masks which bore memories of the individuals who previously work the
masks.
> The memories were encased in the mask by facial excretions that were a
byproduct
> of the centuries of ritualization of mask wearing.  Most masks were handed
down
> generation to generation.  The focus of the story was of one mask that was
> passed down from a suspected serial rapist/murderer to his daughter after his
> death.  He died a natural death several years after being found innocent of
the
> alleged crimes by a jury of peers.  His daughter put on the mask once and went
> completely mad.
>
> The few.  The proud.  The Marines...
>
> I'll need to dig up some texts on Joseph Campbell and masks for the subway
> rides...  Just some passing thoughts...

> ----- Original Message -----
> To: Any Mouse
> Subject: FWD: Autonomia and the Origin of the Black Bloc
>
>
> > Thought this was rather informative...
> >
> >
> > >To: loveandrage <loveandrage at yahoogroups.com>,
> > >        Autopsy <aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu>
> > >Subject: AUT: aut and black blocking
> > >
> > >Autonomia and the Origin of the Black Bloc
> > >
> > >> Article by: Daniel Dylan Young
> > >> Thursday 08 Feb 2001
> > >>
> > >> Email:
> > >>
> > >> Summary:Whether the Black Bloc continues as a tactic or is abandoned, it
> > >certainly has served its purpose. In certain places and times the Black
Bloc
> > >effectively empowered people to take action in collective solidarity
against
> > >the violence of state and capitalism. It is important that we neither cling
> > >to it nostalgically as an outdated ritual or tradition, nor reject it
> > >wholesale because it sometimes seems inappropriate. Rather we should
> > >continue working pragmatically to fulfill our individual needs and desires
> > >through various tactics and objectives, as they are appropriate at the
> > >specific moment. Masking up in Black Bloc has its time and place, as do
> > >other tactics which conflict with it.
> > >>
> > >> Article:
> > >> \"Those in authority fear the mask for their power partly resides in
> > >identifying, stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who you are...our masks
> > >are not to conceal our identity but to reveal it...Today we shall give this
> > >resistance a face; for by putting on our masks we reveal our unity; and by
> > >raising our voices in the street together, we speak our anger at the
> > >facelessness of power...\"
> > >>
> > >> --from a message printed on the inside of 9000 masks distributed at the
> > >June 18th, 1999 Carnival Against Capital which destroyed the financial
> > >district of central London
> > >>
> > >> At the WTO protests in Seattle last year, somewhere from 100 to 300
> > >anarchists and others dressed up in black and systematically trashed the
> > >storefronts of odious multinational corporations. Since then the tactic of
> > >the \"Black Bloc\" has been getting quite a bit of attention from different
> > >people concerned with social change. All sorts of upper middle class,
> > >trust-fund progressives and liberals have prattled on moralistically to
> > >great length about how there is no room for such behavior in their
movement.
> > >At the same time, the Black Bloc in Seattle inspired a renewed interest in
> > >militant protest tactics which do not placate authority or bow to its
power.
> > >The N30 Black Bloc, along with many other aspects of the events in Seattle,
> > >has also inspired radical anarchists to stop hiding out inside liberal
> > >activist groups with reformist agendas, and start being more vocal in their
> > >demands for revolution and total social change. Besides the rapid
> > >proliferation of anarchist publicatio!
> > >> ns and organizations, clear evidence of this resurgence of anarchism in
> > >the United States can be seen in the large Black Blocs which were present
on
> > >April 16th in Washington D.C., at the Democratic and Republican National
> > >Conventions this summer, and at many other marches, protests and actions
> > >from sea to shining  sea. For good or ill, it seems that in the last year
> > >the Black Bloc has become an American tradition, and it all started with
> > >those brave kids back in Seattle.
> > >>
> > >> Or did it? In fact, November 30th was far from the first time that a
large
> > >group of radicals dressed up in black with black masks in order to engage
in
> > >militant protest in  anonymity and solidarity. The Black Bloc as an agreed
> > >upon protest tactic may be as much as 20 years old. Its origins in fact lie
> > >with the European Autonomen or autonomists, a radical social movement that
> > >didn\'t even necessarily proclaim itself anarchist, though many of its
> > >tactics and ideas have become widely appreciated and adopted by
> > >self-proclaimed anarchists.
> > >>
> > >> About Autonomy
> > >>
> > >> Autonomia, Autonomen, or autonomists have been the names used for various
> > >popular social change and countercultural movements in Italy, Germany,
> > >Denmark, Holland and other parts of Europe in the last 3 decades. All these
> > >different movements have sought to radically oppose authority, domination
> > >and violence anywhere that they exist in contemporary life (which is pretty
> > >much everywhere). Autonomy in this case does not mean some kind of regional
> > >superiority complex or isolationism, as with statist nationalism, nor does
> > >it mean individual autonomy at the expense of the majority, as is the the
> > >basis of capitalism. What autonomists value and desire is the freedom for
> > >individuals to choose others with whom they share an affinity, and band
> > >together with them to survive and fulfill all of their needs and desires
> > >collectively, without interference from greedy, violent individuals or huge
> > >inhuman bureaucracies.
> > >>
> > >> The first so-called autonomists were those individuals involved in the
> > >Italian Autonomia movement that got its start during the Hot Autumn of
1969,
> > >a time of intense social unrest. Throughout the 1970s in Italy a widespread
> > >movement for total social change was initiated by autonomous groups of
> > >factory workers, women and students. Capitalists, labor unions and the
> > >statist Communist Party bureaucracy had nothing to do with this movement,
> > >and in fact worked hard to repress and stop it. Yet the power structure was
> > >often at a loss with how to deal with the near complete refusal of large
> > >areas of the population to obey the rules and orders of authority.
> > >>
> > >> Despite the rapid proliferation of direct action, strikes, rent strikes,
> > >mass squats, streetfighting, university occupations and other popularly
> > >supported radical actions during the 1970s, the Italian movement eventually
> > >subsided. This was partly due to violent attacks, imprisonment and murders
> > >of radicals by the police and the Communist party-controlled central
> > >government. At the same time the response to this escalation of  state
> > >violence was often an escalation of terrorism by elite radical urban
> > >guerilla groups . This self-defensive terrorism often served to turn people
> > >away from a large scale, public social change movement. Some chose to
become
> > >more militant and secretive, while others abandoned politics all together
> > >for a seemingly more peaceful life of obedience to authority.
> > >>
> > >> Building Revolutionary Dual Power -- The Culture of the Autonomen
> > >>
> > >> Though the revolutionary potential of the Italian Autonomia in the 1970s
> > >died down, their vibrance, confidence and empowerment was an inspiration to
> > >young people in West Germany in the 1980s. Inspired also by the Amsterdam
> > >squatters\' movements and youth organization in Switzerland, young Germans
> > >in Berlin, Hamburg and other major cities began building their own
> > >autonomous culture and social groups based upon radical resistance and
> > >alternative ways of life.
> > >>
> > >> The direction and composition of radical organization in West Germany in
> > >the 1980s was partly determined by the reigning economic recession and the
> > >forms it took. Because of the well established connections between
> > >industrial unions and the German government, the effects of this recession
> > >were felt not so much by blue collar workers, but by young people who found
> > >it increasingly impossible to secure jobs and housing and thereby move out
> > >of their parents\' home and become socially and financially independent.
> > >Therefore points for autonomous youth mobilization included the stifling
> > >conformity of rural German society and the nuclear family, serious housing
> > >shortages, high unemployment--as well as the continued illegal status of
> > >abortion and government plans for a massive expansion of nuclear power.
> > >>
> > >> As a result of economic recession and flight to the suburbs, at the end
of
> > >the 1970s huge tracts of buildings in different German inner cities,
> > >especially West Berlin, lay abandoned by developers or government agencies.
> > >Squatting these buildings was a viable option for impoverished young people
> > >looking for independence from the nuclear family home. Vibrant squatters\'
> > >communities grew up in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, the
> > >Haffenstrasse squats of Hamburg and in other concentration points. The
> > >cornerstone of these communities was communal living, and the creation of
> > >radical social centers: infoshops, bookstores, coffeehouses, meeting halls,
> > >bars, concert halls, art galleries, and other multi-use spaces where
> > >grassroots political, artistic and social culture were developed as an
> > >alternative to nuclear family life, TV dreams and mass-produced pop
culture.
> > >>
> > >> >From these safe social spaces grew major grassroots initiatives to fight
> > >nuclear power; to break down patriarchy and gender roles; to show
solidarity
> > >with oppressed people throughout the world by attacking the European-based
> > >multinational corporations or financial institutions like the World Bank;
> > >and after German reunification, to fight the rising tide of conservative
> > >neo-Nazism.
> > >>
> > >> Similar initiatives for alternative living as resistance were percolating
> > >in the 1980s (and in some places much earlier) in Holland, Denmark and
> > >elsewhere throughout northern Europe. Eventually all of these northern
> > >Europeans living in decentralized social groups dedicated to creating a
> > >non-coercive, non-hierarchical society became collectively labeled as
> > >\"Autonomen.\" Over time the autonomists\' ideas and tactics also migrated
> > >throughout the reunited post-Iron Curtain Europe. I personally have visited
> > >radical autonomous social centers in England, Spain, Italy, Croatia,
> > >Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.
> > >>
> > >> Hardline Oppression, Militant Resistance, And the Origins of the Black
> > >Bloc
> > >>
> > >> >From the beginning the West German state did not take kindly to young
> > >Autonomen, whether they were occupying nuclear power plant building sites
or
> > >unused apartment buildings. In the winter of 1980 the Berlin city
government
> > >decided to take a hardline against the thousands of young people living in
> > >squats throughout the city: they decided to criminalize, attack and evict
> > >them into the cold winter streets. This was a much more shocking and
unusual
> > >action in Germany than it would be in the U.S., and created much popular
> > >disgust and condemnation of the police and government.
> > >>
> > >> >From December 1980 on there was an escalating cycle of mass arrests,
> > >street fighting, and new squatting in Berlin and throughout Germany. The
> > >Autonomen were not to be cowed, and each eviction was responded to with
> > >several new building occupations. When squatters in the south German city
of
> > >Freiburg were mass arrested, rallies and demonstrations supporting them and
> > >condemning the police state\'s eviction policy took place in every major
> > >city in Germany. In Berlin on that day, later dubbed \"Black Friday,\"
> > >upwards of 15,000 to 20,000 people took to the streets and destroyed an
> > >upper class shopping area.(1)
> > >>
> > >> This was the seething cauldron of oppression and resistance from which
the
> > >Black Bloc was birthed. In late 1981 the German government began legalizing
> > >certain squats in an attempt to divide the counterculture and marginalize
> > >more radical segments. But these tactics were slow to pacify the popular
> > >radical movement--especially since the period of 1980-81 had seen not only
a
> > >brutal treatment of squatters but also the largest police mobilization in
> > >Germany since the reign of the third Reich in order to attack non-violent,
> > >sitting protesters at the \"Free Republic of Wendland,\" an encampment of
> > >5000 activists blocking the construction of the Gorleben nuclear waste
> > >dump.(2) Even formerly ardent pacifists had been radicalized by the
> > >experience of sustained, violent police oppression against diverse squats
> > >and activist occupations.
> > >>
> > >> In response to violent state oppression radical activists developed the
> > >tactic of the Black Bloc: they went to protests and marches wearing black
> > >motorcycle helmets and ski masks and dressing in uniform black clothing
(or,
> > >for the most prepared, wearing padding and steel-toed boots and bringing
> > >their own shields and truncheons). In Black Bloc, autonomen and other
> > >radicals could more effectively fend off police attacks, without being
> > >singled out as individuals for arrest and harassment later on. And, as
> > >everyone quickly figured out, having a massive group of people all dressed
> > >the same with their faces covered not only helps in defending against the
> > >police, but also makes it easier for saboteurs to take the offensive
against
> > >storefronts, banks and any other material symbols and power centers of
> > >capitalism and the  state. Masking up as a Black Bloc encouraged popular
> > >participation in public property destruction and violence against the state
> > >and capitalism. In this way the Blac!
> > >> k Bloc is a form of militance that mitigates the problematic dichotomy
> > >between popularly executed non-violent civil disobedience and elite,
> > >secretive guerilla terrorism and sabotage.
> > >>
> > >> Autonomen Black Bloc Accomplishments
> > >>
> > >> Black Blocs, Autonomen militance, and popular resistance to the
> > >police-state and the New World Order spread among European youth in the
> > >1980s.
> > >>
> > >> Though Dutch radicals did not begin calling themselves \"Autonomen\"
until
> > >around 1986, earlier Dutch counterculture activists shared tactics,
> > >organizing structures and militancy with self-proclaimed autonomists.
> > >Holland\'s squatting movement really got started around 1968, and by 1981
> > >more then 10,000 houses and apartments were squatted in Amsterdam, and
there
> > >were around 15,000 squats in the rest of Holland. Squatted restaurants,
> > >bars, cafes, and information centers were commonplace, and the organized
> > >squatters (usually referred to as \"kraakers\") had their own council to
> > >plan the movement\'s direction and their own newsradio station.(3)
> > >>
> > >> Although some Dutch autonomists rejected wearing ski masks while in Black
> > >Bloc(4), the movement was no less militant. One book about the Dutch
> > >squatters movement reports that \"Ever since the beginning there had been a
> > >\'black helmet brigade\' which felt it had joined battle with municipal
> > >social democracy.\"(5)
> > >>
> > >> Battles at the evictions of Amsterdam squats often featured the
> > >construction of huge barricades and walled-in squatters tossing furniture
> > >and other projectiles of all shapes and sizes out the window at riot police
> > >below. In the early years there were certain limits to the violence which
> > >Dutch squatters would use to retaliate against police attacks. However in
> > >1985 when a squatter named Hans Kok died in police custody after being
> > >arrested during a particularly brutal raid and eviction, the ante was
upped.
> > >
> > >Following the news of his death a night of fiery destruction reigned in
> > >Amsterdam, with even police cars set on fire in front of many different
> > >precincts. Said one squatter: \"Everyone had the idea, now we\'ll use the
> > >ultimate means, just before guns anyway: mollies...Everyone went around
with
> > >mollies in their pockets, everyone had full gasoline cans...it was the new
> > >action method.\"(6) Though Hans Kok\'s death and the fiery retribution that
> > >followed had a negative effect on!
> > >>  the popular squatters\' movement, the new militancy of tactics proved
> > >useful in some activist circles. In 1985 the Dutch Anti-Racist Action Group
> > >(RARA) mounted a successful campaign to force the Dutch supermarket chain
> > >MARKO to divest from South Africa: the campaign was accomplished through a
> > >series of extremely expensive and damaging firebombings of MARKO\'s stores
> > >and offices.(7)
> > >>
> > >> In Germany in 1986 mounting police attacks and attempted evictions
against
> > >a complex of squatted houses in Hamburg called the Haffenstrasse were met
> > >with the counteroffensive of a 10,000 person march surrounding at least
1500
> > >people in a Black Bloc, carrying a huge banner that read, \"Build
> > >Revolutionary Dual Power!\" At the march\'s end, the Black Bloc was able to
> > >successfully engage in street fighting that put the police on the retreat.
> > >On the following day fires were set in 13 department stores in Hamburg,
> > >causing nearly $10 million in damage.(8)
> > >>
> > >> That same year, the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant brought
> > >new militance to demonstrations against nuclear power plants under
> > >construction in Germany. Once account of these anti-nuclear demonstrations
> > >reported, \"In scenes resembling \'civil war,\' helmeted, leather-clad
> > >troops of the anarchist Autonomen armed with slingshots, Molotov cocktails
> > >and flare guns clashed brutally with the police, who employed water
cannons,
> > >helicopters and CS gas (officially banned for use against civilians.\"(9)
> > >>
> > >> In June of 1987 when Ronald Reagan came to Berlin, around 50,000 people
> > >demonstrated in the streets against this Cold War-mongering old man,
> > >including a 3000 person Black Bloc.(10) A couple of months later police
> > >antagonism against the Haffenstrasse intensified again. In November 1987
> > >residents and thousands of other Autonomen fortified the complex, built
> > >barricades in the streets and fought off police for nearly 24 hours. In the
> > >end the city chose to legalize the squatters\' residence.(11)
> > >>
> > >> Over ten years before Seattle and the American WTO protests, the
Autonomen
> > >mobilized a similar event with a greater number of resisters. In September
> > >of 1988, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund met in Berlin.
> > >Autonomen used this meeting as a focal point for worldwide resistance to
> > >global corporate capitalism and government\'s destruction of grassroots
> > >autonomy and community. Thousands of activists from throughout Europe and
> > >the U.S. were mobilized, and 80,000 protesters met the bankers (at least
> > >30,000 more than in Seattle).(12) The totally outnumbered police and
private
> > >security at the event attempted to maintain order by banning all
> > >demonstrations and brutally attacking any public assembly, but riots still
> > >ravaged fashionable upper class shopping areas (as was tradition).
> > >>
> > >> Pre-Seattle Black Blocs In the U.S.A.
> > >>
> > >> In November of 1999 the Black Bloc tactic seemed new to many Americans
> > >partly because the actions and ideas of the autonomist movement in Europe
> > >were mostly blacked out of the American media and have been barely written
> > >about at all in English. However, ignorance of the Black Bloc also stems
> > >from the fact that most Americans get news of domestic events from a
> > >corporate-controlled media that ignores any happenings that don\'t fit
their
> > >view and purposes, and which represents every event that takes place as
> > >singular spectacle disconnected from past and future, to be forgotten in a
> > >blur even when it is only a few months old.
> > >>
> > >> Radicals in the U.S. have never been totally ignorant of the actions and
> > >ideas of European autonomists, and the development of the punk rock
> > >subculture in the U.S. throughout the 1980s in many ways mirrored that of
> > >the autonomists. By the beginning of the 1990\'s anarchists and other
> > >radicals in the U.S. were masking up at marches and protests to build
> > >solidarity and create anonymity for militants.
> > >>
> > >> When the Gulf War was going one protest in the streets of Washington D.C.
> > >included a  Black Bloc that smashed in the windows of the World Bank
> > >building. That same year on Columbus Day in San Francisco a Black Bloc
> > >showed up to help show militant resistance to the continuing genocide of
> > >North American domination by Europeans.(13) Personally, the largest Black
> > >Bloc that I\'ve ever seen was at the Millions March For Mumia in
> > >Philadelphia in April of 1999. I\'d say there were at least 500 dressed in
> > >Black, masked up, and carrying banners such as \"Vegans For Mumia.\" Though
> > >there was no street fighting and no particularly noticeable property
> > >destruction, some kids did manage to get into a parking garage along the
> > >march route, climb to the roof and wave the black flag.
> > >>
> > >> The Global Future of the Black Mask
> > >>
> > >> The symbol of the black-masked autonomist militant has spread to the
third
> > >world as well. As the North American Free Trade Agreement\'s destructive
> > >neo-liberalalizing economic policies took effect on January 1st, 1994, a
> > >guerilla uprising took place in Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico. The
> > >uprising sought to create space for the development of autonomous social
> > >organization among downtrodden Mayan indigenous peoples. The armed wing of
> > >this struggle for community autonomy and direct democracy without coercion
> > >or hierarchy has been and continues to be the Zapatistas, men and women who
> > >wear black balaclavas (similar to ski masks) whenever they appear in
public.
> > >Many autonomists and anarchists have visited and tried to help them in
their
> > >struggles with knowledge, money, materials and by building inernational
> > >awareness and solidarity of the situation in Chiapas.
> > >>
> > >> Back in Germany, the Autonomen are seeing dark days. It is said that in
> > >the past squatters held at least 165 large, five-story apartment buildings
> > >in eastern Berlin, but by late 1997 only 3 remained.(14) Legalizing some
> > >squats while brutally evicting others has been an effective policy for the
> > >police state. Many people living in legalized squats are unwilling to rock
> > >the boat by encouraging or expressing solidarity with militant tactics
> > >practiced by other squatters, and this marginalization makes it easier for
> > >the squatters to lose out in street-fighting against an increasingly
> > >militarized police force.
> > >>
> > >> The resurgence of neo-Nazism in what once was East Germany and other
areas
> > >of the country has meant no end of troubles for German Autonomen. They face
> > >violence and death from neo-Nazi attacks, especially in most of eastern
> > >Germany which neo-Nazi gangs police as a \"no-punk, no-foreigner zone.\"
> > >Massive amounts of Autonomen time and effort goes into organizing to oppose
> > >the spread of neo-Nazism, but this means neglecting the tasks of developing
> > >new viable alternatives to authoritarian society, one of the main original
> > >goals of autonomists. \"Antifa\" or anti-fascist organizing brings the
> > >Autonomen into more and more violent confrontations with the German police,
> > >who basically support neo-Nazi groups and their nationalist, racist
> > >ideologies--when individual police officers aren\'t directly involved with
> > >fascist groups.
> > >>
> > >> Rumour has it that many militants in areas of northern Europe where the
> > >Black Bloc was a common demonstration tactic have been increasingly given
it
> > >up, as it has ceased to serve its purpose. The forces of state repression
> > >have caught on, and use ever greater technological, legal and physical
force
> > >to observe, isolate, pursue and target those involved in Black Blocs. A
> > >similar process is taking place in the U.S., with a resurgence of
> > >COINTELPRO-style tactics aimed at radicals who oppose the global
> > >capitalist-statist American empire.
> > >>
> > >> Whether the Black Bloc continues as a tactic or is abandoned, it
certainly
> > >has served its purpose. In certain places and times the Black Bloc
> > >effectively empowered people to take action in collective solidarity
against
> > >the violence of state and capitalism. It is important that we neither cling
> > >to it nostalgically as an outdated ritual or tradition, nor reject it
> > >wholesale because it sometimes seems inappropriate. Rather we should
> > >continue working pragmatically to fulfill our individual needs and desires
> > >through various tactics and objectives, as they are appropriate at the
> > >specific moment. Masking up in Black Bloc has its time and place, as do
> > >other tactics which conflict with it.
> > >>
> > >> 1. Katsiaficas, George. The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous
> > >Social Movements And The Decolonization of Everyday Life. New Jersey:
> > >Humanities Press International, Inc., 1997, p. 91.
> > >>
> > >> 2. Katsiaficas, p. 82
> > >>
> > >> 3. Katsiaficas, p. 116
> > >>
> > >> 4. Katsiaficas, p. 116.
> > >>
> > >> 5. ADILKNO. Cracking The Movement: Squatting Beyond the Media. Trans.
> > >Laura Martz. New York: Autonomedia, 1990. p. 25.
> > >>
> > >> 6. ADILKNO, 123
> > >>
> > >> 7. Katsiaficas, 119.
> > >>
> > >> 8. Katsiaficas, 128.
> > >>
> > >> 9. Katsiaficas, 211.
> > >>
> > >> 10. Katsiaficas, 131.
> > >>
> > >> 11. Katsiaficas, 130.
> > >>
> > >> 12. Katsiaficas, 131.
> > >>
> > >> 13. Mid-Atlantic Infoshop. \"Black Bloc For Dummies.\"
> > >
> > >>
> > >> 14. Thompson, A. Clay. \"Street Battles--German Squatters Squeezed to
Near
> > >Extinction.\"
> > >
> >
>